Yes, Freenode! IRC is way better because it's minimal, fast, immediate feedback and people seem to be more interested in exchanging ideas, help, etc - the community seems to be way more skilled than the new generation of coders who use those web-based chat services. There are no photos, etc. You need to think before posting a question, needs to be clear. If you visit one of these web chat thingies, you'll notice that people take ages to reply if they do end up replying back to you; In IRC it's live!